Venezuela to offer CANTV stock buy-out

CARACAS, March 21 (Reuters) - Venezuela will offer to buy out stock in CANTV TDVd.CR VNT.N next week, expecting to take a share of 60 to 70 percent in the country's biggest telephone company, Telecommunications Minister Jesse Chacon said on Wednesday.

He told the Reuters Latin American Investment Summit in Caracas that Venezuela expects it would move to delist CANTV's American Depository Shares after taking the majority interest.

The move would be part of President Hugo Chavez's wide-ranging nationalization program. The leftist leader is taking over swathes of the economy which he defines as strategic, such as oil projects and power utilities.

Chacon said the government was awaiting approval for its move from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, expected to be granted this week.

"Once they approve it, we will next week launch the take-over bid, in Venezuela and in the United States," he said.

((Reporting by Fabian Andres Cambero, writing by Christian Oliver, editing by Gerald E. McCormick; Caracas newsroom, +58 212 277 2656, RM: Christian.Oliver.reuters.com@reuters.net, E-mail: Christian.Oliver@reuters.com))

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